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pray, the stronger your intent will be, and the stronger your intent, and impels him to engage in, unless he makes a great
the more you will pray at length. Ultimately, you will change your effort to distance himself from two things: he distances
nature entirely, because heaven will guide you on the path of himself from [the influence of his] sense of sight and he
holiness. That is the essence of the service of Hashem, the essence distances himself from [the influence of his] thoughts.
of why you came into this world. But if a person does not do these two things, he cannot
control this [evil] spirit in order to destroy it within
Everyone has his own test, his own evil inclination, his own
craving. The service of every individual is to apply the work of himself.
the will to that craving, which besieges him so forcefully, which
attacks him so fiercely, that he does not understand why it does In other words, the holy Ohr Hachaim is saying that a person
so. This appears to be unfair, it appears to dwarf his capabilities does not have the power to keep from engaging in forbidden
and it seems to keep him from serving Hashem. But you must relations. The only factors that can prevent him from doing so are
know, first of all, that everything has been crafted with the ultimate having eyes that are entirely guarded and thoughts that are entirely
precision in accordance with your mission and in accordance with clean. That is to say, in order to be protected from engaging in
everything you need to rectify in this incarnation of yours and in forbidden relations, a person must be a Holy of Holies. And what
other incarnations. Secondly, this struggle does not disturb your will all other people do, who are as far from this as the East is from
service of Hashem, because this struggle is itself your service. This the West? They need the help of the Holy One, blessed be He. If
is what heaven wants from you: that you engage in the work of the Hashem does not help them, they cannot succeed, because this
will to overcome this craving that assails you day after day, however challenge is beyond their power!
long it may take, until you annihilate it completely.
This means that our sages have explicitly stated that overcoming

During this time, do not condemn yourself. You are not guilty the evil inclination is beyond a person’s abilities. The evil inclination
for the fact that this craving assaults you, because this is a test from constitutes a person’s nature. Therefore, he has to change his evil
heaven. You are not guilty for all of your descents, because the nature. But that is not in his power—it is only in the power of
evil inclination has very great power, and if not for the fact that the Creator. Thus, we must learn the remaining laws of reality in
the Holy One, blessed be He, helps you, you could not overcome order to know what is under our control—we must know what can
it. You only need engage in the work of the will until you become change our nature, and how we can accomplish that change. But
someone who possesses intent. In the meantime, do not look at the first principle is to know that we require assistance.
others and do not envy anyone else’s work, because everyone has
This is particularly relevant to our generation, in which we see the
his own task. Hashem is happy with you and takes pride in you as upsurge of the evil inclination and its cravings to such an alarming
you are, and you give the Creator great pleasure when you battle
your evil inclination. degree that they appear to have gone out of control, so that almost
all people either surrender to their cravings and enter with them
Some evil inclinations are common to everyone and bombard into dark and murky places, or else they try to overcome them
everyone, and all people must engage in the work of the will to with their own strength and fail each time, again and again, until
battle will until heaven will nullify them. And some individuals they despair. Each time they are tested, they fail. That is because
have a particular evil inclination and particular craving, a special or they are attempting to proceed on the basis of their own ability.
difficult addiction that constitutes the essence of their rectification Afterwards, they grow depressed, blame themselves and torment
and work. The evil inclination for forbidden relations is shared by themselves. This is caused by their belief that they have the power
everyone; the evil inclination for overeating is shared by most people, to overcome their evil inclination, which leads them to think that

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